Magu vows to help AMCON recover N5trillion loans

6th August 2019

The Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Ibrahim Magu, has vowed to assist the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria, AMCON, to recover monies going into trillions of Naira being owed it by businessmen, women and companies. “We are ready to work with you, we will render assistance in terms of enforcement, in order to recover these loans, because they are affecting the economy of the country from flourishing,” he said. Magu made the declaration while receiving a delegation from AMCON, led by its Chairman, Muiz Banire, SAN, and its Managing Director, Ahmed Kuru, who came on a familiarization visit to the EFCC Headquarters, Jabi, Abuja on August 6, 2019. Expressing the resolve of the anti-graft agency in ensuring the recovery of the monies, Magu further called for collaboration and a re-evaluation of the modus operandi of the Corporation. “In order to recover these loans, there is need for inter-agency collaboration, going beyond the EFCC to the police, the court, Central Bank of Nigeria, NDIC, because there is need for AMCON to re-strategize and block loopholes,” he said. Banire, who revealed that the total loan today stood in excess of N5trillion. “This is the money that belongs to all Nigerians. If N5trillion can be injected into our economy in Nigeria, particularly infrastructure, hospitals will change, education will change, the road we use will change and definitely everything will change positively”. While commending the readiness of the Commission to assist the Corporation, he acknowledged the “giant strides the EFCC has accomplished in the recent past, not just in the number of convictions, but even from the exposure and calmness in taming the extravagant lifestyle of people stealing” public funds. He also used the opportunity to highlight the efforts of AMCON in debt recovery, dating back to its creation to “absorb most of the loans during the time that the banks were collapsing, in order to strengthen the banks”